We're No. 1-Family Income Inequality Among Tex. Universities

[Stallion]

New York Times story on the diversification of family income inequality of various national universities. SMU students come from the wealthiest families among schools in Texas. Interesting stuff

67% come from Top 20%
3.3% come from Bottom 20%

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/pro ... university

Perhaps more telling is that more SMU students come from Top 1% (22.9%)than the Bottom 60% (18.9%)
https://www.nytimes.com/section/upshot

Here's the main page of the full article:

https://www.nytimes.com/section/upshot

[tristatecoog]

Top 15 TX schools ranked by parents' household income:

Southern Methodist University Dallas TX 176,400
Trinity University San Antonio TX 153,200
Rice University Houston TX 149,200
Texas Christian University Fort Worth TX 142,700
Baylor University Waco TX 132,400
Southwestern University Austin TX 130,600
University Of Texas At Austin Austin TX 125,100
Texas A&M University College Station TX 119,400
University Of Dallas Dallas TX 116,700
Texas Tech University Lubbock TX 110,300
Austin College Sherman TX 109,300
St. Edward's University Austin TX 101,100
Abilene Christian University Abilene TX 101,000
Texas State University Austin TX 100,900
University Of Texas At Dallas Dallas TX 100,800

One fun fact is that St Edward's has a greater percentage from the top 1% than Baylor (6.4% vs. 5.9%). At 21%, SMU is third in the nation with % from Top 1%. Vanderbilt and Middlebury are the top two. Washington & Lee has the highest average household income with $227K.

[StallionsModelT]

Success typically breeds success. Love it.

[tristatecoog]

You bet, Vandy, Middlebury, Rice, Trinity, the Ivies, etc. are great academic company.

As SMU moves up the rankings, it will want to balance attracting wealthy applicants with others in order to keep progressing (i.e., higher scores and lower acceptance rates).

Some universities are need-blind and are able to charge nothing for families with incomes below $75K or so. My niece in east TX is a senior in the top 5% of her class at a big school, has solid test scores, ECs and is Hispanic. My sister-in-law is a single parent school bus driver so the niece would have killer essays. I saw that W&L offered generous aid but no way she'd fit in there. She's too scared of the sticker price at SMU/TCU so I thought about UT/UH. Not now. Headed to JUCO to be a nurse. Plans to go to a four year U after the basic nursing classes and degree.

[Stallion]

"3.3% come from Bottom 20%"

I wonder what those numbers would look like without an athletic program-specifically football and basketball

[tristatecoog]

If you have approx. 32 new freshmen each year for football and basketball (M/W), and one-half of those were in the lowest quintile (too high?), 2.1% of the rest of the student body would be in the bottom quintile. I assume there are 1300 new freshmen each year. Transfers are separate.

[SoCal_Pony]

HaHa, came on to PFs tonight to post this, noticed its already here.

SMU has 19% of its kids in Bottom 60%, while Harvard has 20.5% and USC has 22%, so the disparity for SMU is more on the top end.

I did note that NYT's considers the benchmark for Top 1% to be $630k annual salary. That seems quite high to me.

[One Trick Pony]

I've met a lot of blue-collars that have graduated from SMU that don't have enough gas in their car to get their last paycheck . Just saying.

[ponyboy]

I don't know that I've ever met a blue collar worker from SMU. And that's no knock on either blue collars or SMU. You just don't generally go to the Hilltop to learn blue collar skills.

[One Trick Pony]

They're all millionaires

[deucetz]

Success typically breeds success. Love it.

I guess that is one way to spin it.

[One Trick Pony]

$12 in the cash tip jar in the Miller Club at halftime. Lol. You'd think ponyScott was picking up the Tab.

However the elderly classic blue hair who overheard our conversation regarding a possible trip to the Bahamas for basketball owns half the island,

[CoxMustangFan]

Top 15 TX schools ranked by parents' household income:

Southern Methodist University Dallas TX 176,400
Trinity University San Antonio TX 153,200
Rice University Houston TX 149,200
Texas Christian University Fort Worth TX 142,700
Baylor University Waco TX 132,400
Southwestern University Austin TX 130,600
University Of Texas At Austin Austin TX 125,100
Texas A&M University College Station TX 119,400
University Of Dallas Dallas TX 116,700
Texas Tech University Lubbock TX 110,300
Austin College Sherman TX 109,300
St. Edward's University Austin TX 101,100
Abilene Christian University Abilene TX 101,000
Texas State University Austin TX 100,900
University Of Texas At Dallas Dallas TX 100,800

One fun fact is that St Edward's has a greater percentage from the top 1% than Baylor (6.4% vs. 5.9%). At 21%, SMU is third in the nation with % from Top 1%. Vanderbilt and Middlebury are the top two. Washington & Lee has the highest average household income with $227K.

Am I the only one surprised SMU is only $176k?

[SoCal_Pony]

The NYT article says the median income is $200k, this makes more sense.

If 23% of your student body is in the 1% of salary, which they define as $630k+, it's virtually impossible to have the average income $176k.

[tristatecoog]

I believe it's median, not average. Average is surely above $200K.